Carlmont High School’s principal said Friday the school newspaper could relaunch as soon as this week if all goes well in the final talks between a faculty member interested in advising reporters and the publication’s editorial staff.

Students said administrators shut down The Scots Express last Monday because of a somewhat racy article that ran in last week’s edition. But Principal Andrea Jenoff said lack of faculty oversight was the reason for its closing.

She said Friday an English teacher at the school would be willing to open his room seventh period to advise the students.

“He already has computers in there, so he’ll have computers available for them to work,” Jenoff added, noting that the arrangement was “85 percent” certain pending further meetings between student reporters and the faculty member early this week.

Jenoff said the students would likely get independent study credit for their work, and the teacher would receive a stipend to cover the extra hours.

Editor Alex Zhang and junior Jack Dooley, who wrote the controversial story, said administrators told them last week they were suspending the paper because of “inappropriate content.”

In the article, Dooley joked about his own sexiness and described smearing his body with baby oil.

California and federal law bar faculty and administrators from dictating what editorial content or advertisements appear in student newspapers, so long as stories aren’t gratuitously obscene and don’t encourage violence or other disruptive behavior, according to the Student Press Law Center, based in Arlington, Va.

In an e-mail sent Thursday night, Zhang said he was confident the paper would start publishing again soon.

“We are looking forward to getting the paper on track soon,” Zhang wrote. “Now I love journalism even more.”

Jenoff said she contacted Dooley’s parents after receiving six phone calls from adult males asking for the 16-year-old’s personal contact information. The callers wouldn’t identify themselves, and Jenoff said she believed they had a lewd purpose.

"There is a general recognition that we don't need these military-style weapons in New Zealand, so it's very easy to win cross-party support for this," said Mark Mitchell, who was defense minister in the previous, center-right government and who supports the ban initiated by the center-left-led Labour Party.